#  TDM Instructor Spotlight: EllaRose Chary 

 





July 27, 2020

 

 

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 Next semester, EllaRose Chary, along with her collaborator Jay Stull, will be directing the TDM Fall 2020 Production and teaching a class entitled Making Horizontal Theater. EllaRose is a theatremaker who can be found working as a book writer, lyricist, playwright, and activist. We had the opportunity to have EllaRose answer a few questions for us in anticipation of her work with TDM in the fall.

   ![chary_headshot_01.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum6821/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/tdm/files/chary_headshot_01.jpg?itok=NGQ4bwqc) 

 

 **What excites you about working in TDM this fall?**  
I'm so impressed by the students we've met so far and I can't wait to get to know them better and work with them more fully. We are in such an important moment as a theater community and national/global community and I believe as artists we can use horizontal theater to engage with and meet this moment, so I look forward to how the students will use the tools of this methodology to do just that.

 **What’s an upcoming project you have that you’re excited about?**  
I have a couple of projects I'm excited about right now - in the wake of COVID, my primary composer collaborator Brandon James Gwinn (@brandonjamesg) and I wanted to figure out how to translate what we were already doing (writing musicals, stories with songs and soundscapes, songs that are stories, etc.) to the digital world during a time of physical distance. We made a short musical, HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD, that lives online ([www.brandonandella.com](http://www.brandonandella.com/)) and are also curating a queer instagram project that features queer artists we love singing songs from our catalogue to foster discussion and a queer space (@thingsidontsayproject). We're also continuing work on our musical TL;DR: Thelma Louise;Dyke Remix and will get a chance to do it with actors (in whatever format the world allows) this fall.

 **What’s something you’re excited about happening in the arts community right now?**  
I'm excited about the conversations about justice and liberation happening in the arts community right now. I have long been a believer that the things that will fundamentally transform the arts are the same things that will transform society - universal housing, universal healthcare, universal basic income - and I'm pleased to see those ideas becoming more widespread in the arts community as well. There is a lot of striving to NOT go "back to normal" and I support that fully. Normal in the American theater had fundamental inequalities that hurt the form and prevented artists from doing their best work. I hope we can use this moment to transform normal into a world that is racially and economically just, and by extension theater will be a part of that world and reflect those values.

 Learn more about EllaRose’s work here: [www.ellarosechary.com](http://www.ellarosechary.com/)



 

 

 



 

 

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